Spanish
Venezuela activated from the early hours of this Wednesday the robust military defense exercise 'Independencia 200' in the states of La Guaira and Carabobo, both with access to the Caribbean, in the context of the US deployment and the bombings of small boats in international waters.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reported through his Telegram account that these exercises comprise the "integral activation of all defense, resistance and permanent offensive plans". The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), the Bolivarian National Police (PNB), and the Bolivarian Militia participate in them. The activities are carried out in the Integral Defense Operational Zones (ZODI) of both states, located in the north-central part of the country and near the Venezuelan capital. Maduro announced that with these simultaneous exercises in two entities "a new activation modality by ZODI begins".Complete 27 tasks
During the actions, 27 tasks must be fulfilled "to comprehensively secure and protect La Guaira and Carabobo," Maduro indicated, after specifying that they will go "step by step, refining the machinery of the powerful national movement for the defense of peace, sovereignty, and the right to the future." Previously, the Minister of Interior Relations, Diosdado Cabello, informed that the Integral Defense Steering Bodies (ODDI) were established in La Guaira and Carabobo, which are instances of planning, coordination, and integration of the State powers, "in the face of the siege that North American imperialism has attempted against the country." "All of Venezuela is mobilizing in an organized manner," he added. From La Guaira, Cabello said that "the powerful enemy", referring to the U.S., "masks coup activities and regime changes behind supposed operations to combat drug trafficking." He also reiterated that if the fight against illicit substances were the cause of the U.S. military deployment, the ships would be in the Pacific and not in the Caribbean. For his part, the commander of the ZODI Carabobo, Héctor José Cadenas Daal, reported that they are preparing to "execute the deconcentration of materials and means" found in Fuerte Paramacay, in that state. That military unit was attacked in August 2017 by a group of ex-military and civilians supported by the extreme right who sought to destabilize the government of Nicolás Maduro. In August, international media reported on a U.S. military deployment in the southern Caribbean, supposedly to confront drug cartels. At the same time, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan president under the accusation —never substantiated— of leading a "narcotrafficking cartel". Following the U.S. military deployment, the foreign ministers of blocs such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) have called for respect for the declaration of the region as a zone of peace. Maduro maintains that his country is the victim of a "multiform war" orchestrated from the U.S. in the interest of promoting a "regime change".
